2024 has been the year of Digital Identity. In Europe, the eIDAS2 Regulation has officially come into force, laying the foundations for the future of this market, while individual States are defining their strategies for delivering the EUDI Wallet to citizens by 2026.
Meanwhile, Big Tech companies such as Google, Samsung, and Apple are making moves globally, launching collaborations with various governments to dematerialize and enable the digital use of identity documents through their wallets. Overall, there are 149 international digital identity wallet projects: 114 in the private sector, 31 in the public sector, and 4 joint initiatives.
In Italy, testing has begun for the IT Wallet, a national public digital wallet accessible via the IO App, along with additional wallets that may be offered by accredited private providers. In its initial trial version—available to all citizens since December 4—it includes the health card, driver’s license, and European Disability Card, with plans to expand credentials and use cases in the coming months. Companies are beginning to question how to evolve their relationship with users by leveraging digital identity and the attributes stored in the Wallet.
At the same time, the growth of existing systems continues slowly. Over the past year, SPID has reached 38.9 million identities, but corporate interest in integration has significantly declined. The Electronic Identity Card (CIE), which the government is strongly promoting for the transition to the wallet, is held by 47.5 million citizens, yet its digital version via the CieID app is used by only 6.1 million users. At this point, the PNRR target of 42.3 million citizens with a digital identity (either SPID or CIE) by June 2026 does not seem easy to achieve, especially considering that some users may have both SPID and CieID activated.
These are some of the findings from the research conducted by the Digital Identity Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, presented during the conference “Digital Identity: spectators or protagonists?”.
“2024 has been a milestone year for digital identity, but despite the strong momentum, the real turning point has yet to arrive,” comments Giorgia Dragoni, Director of the Digital Identity Observatory. “There are still grey areas from a regulatory standpoint regarding the technical details of the wallet, and strategic decisions by market players are not yet fully clear. In the coming months, in Italy and across Europe, key stakeholders—governments, providers, and also companies—will need to face complex challenges. This is the time to decide whether to remain passive observers or become active players in this transformation.”
“The activation of the wallet by citizens will be voluntary, and a clear and effective engagement strategy will be essential, with simple and intuitive systems and targeted campaigns to raise awareness about the benefits and potential of the tool,” adds Luca Gastaldi, Director of the Digital Identity Observatory. “A variety of services will be needed, offered by both public entities and private companies. It is important that companies are involved not only due to regulatory obligations to accept the EUDI wallet as a means of identification, but also out of a genuine willingness to play an active role—acting as verifiers of user credentials and/or building value-added services on top of them.”
“The potential uses of the wallet can only be expanded through a diverse range of credentials,” confirms Valeria Portale, Director of the Digital Identity Observatory. “This requires active collaboration among organizations that provide user attributes to be integrated into the wallet, taking on the role of ‘issuers’. Companies that choose to position themselves as providers will also be crucial, leveraging their expertise and assets to offer solutions that are more familiar to users, scalable across the population, and capable of addressing specific needs and use cases.”
SPID and CIE
At present, in Italy there are 38.9 million active SPID digital identities for adult citizens (78% of the relevant population) and around 33 thousand for minors (0.5%). A plateau in issuance has been reached, and growth rates are now limited: +5% from January to October 2024 compared to +9% recorded in 2023. Usage has also stabilized: from January to September 2024, SPID was used 862 million times to access digital services, with only a 7% increase compared to the same period in 2023 and a steady average usage (22 logins per user over nine months). There are 202 companies accredited as private service providers, complemented by others that are not quantifiable and rely on aggregators. The limited number of private companies reduces SPID’s potential, which remains primarily a tool for accessing public services.
The CIE is held by 47.5 million citizens (including 6.7 million minors), but it has been used digitally, via CieID, by only 6.1 million users (13% of those who possess it). Despite promotional efforts in recent months, actual usage remains limited: from January to September 2024, accesses via CieID amounted to just 52 million. Among the factors limiting the adoption of this tool are the limited number of accessible services (only 92 private companies involved as of October 2024), but above all the well-established familiarity of users with SPID, which is perceived as a system with equivalent functionality.
To achieve the PNRR target of 42.3 million citizens with a digital identity by June 2026, a winning strategy could be to onboard minors into one of the two systems, by building a strong portfolio of services aligned with their needs.
L’EUDI Wallet
In Europe, countries are defining their strategies for delivering the EUDI Wallet to citizens by 2026. Some, such as Greece, are developing projects from scratch, dematerializing official identity documents and integrating them into специально developed applications. Others, such as France and Italy, are planning the convergence of existing systems.
In France, for example, discussions are underway regarding the integration of the electronic identity card system and the fully digital FranceConnect system into the new France Identité wallet. In Germany, on the other hand, within the Funke project managed by the German digitalization agency, the transformation is taking place with the support of private partners selected by the government. Specifically, countries developing new projects from scratch include Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Iceland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and Ukraine. Countries integrating existing digital identity systems include Belgium, Estonia, France, Italy, and Sweden. Furthermore, Estonia, Germany, Spain, and Sweden are relying on the private market.
Europe is at the center of this transformation, but the momentum is global, with Big Tech companies (notably Google, Samsung, and Apple) strengthening their collaborations with various governments. Japan, for example, will allow citizens to add their identity cards to Apple Wallet by spring 2025, while Google has started testing the integration of the U.S. passport..
L’IT Wallet
In Italy, the first tests of the IT Wallet, developed by PagoPA, have begun. On October 23, it was made available to 50,000 users, with a gradual rollout planned until it becomes accessible to the entire population on December 4. In this initial release, the IT Wallet includes the health card, driver’s license, and European Disability Card. The set of credentials will be expanded in the coming months with additional certificates, including the identity card and the voter registration card.
The Government is integrating the wallet’s functionalities into the IO app, which, as of November 2024, has been downloaded more than 40 million times. It will also be necessary to clarify the role of existing digital identity systems, SPID and CIE, in accessing the new wallet. However, the Government’s strategy does not only include a state-managed IT Wallet; it also allows private players to provide their own wallets, in compliance with Italian and European regulations and subject to accreditation by AgID.
Italian companies and wallet
Italian companies have started to take an interest in the wallet, but concrete adoption is slowed down by the uncertainty that characterizes the current context. Uncertainty surrounding the future of existing systems, particularly SPID, is discouraging companies from investing in integration with these systems. Moreover, the development of various wallets has not yet reached a level of maturity that allows for a proper assessment of the benefits and risks of adoption.
By analyzing the regulatory pressure on companies regarding the management of users’ digital identity and the level of maturity in digital identity management—measured through the Digital Identity Awareness Index developed by the Observatory—companies can be divided into three categories. Most telecom, utility, and travel companies fall into the category of “balanced adopters,” characterized by moderate regulatory pressure and a reasonable ability to adopt digital identity systems with a fair level of awareness. For these companies, wallets represent an opportunity to transform customer interactions, as well as a means of competitive differentiation.
Companies facing higher regulatory pressure, such as banks, are divided into “compliance-driven adopters,” which view digital identity mainly as a tool to meet regulatory requirements, and “regulated innovators,” which consider the wallet an enabling factor for core services and strategic positioning. For these companies, which are required to accept the EUDI Wallet as a means of identification, a wait-and-see approach risks undermining their ability to meet market expectations.
